Rancho Miller

First Fruits of Zion’s new Web site, www.torahportons.org, is up and running. It’s a good one, offering the text (printed and in audio, using the ESV) of the upcoming Torah portion for the week as well as the haftarah portion and selection from the Gospels and Acts. There is also commentary culled from FFOZ’s “Torah Club,” which I subscribe to.

Anybody interested in studying Scripture from a messianic perspective would do well to visit.

Voddie Baucham’s Truth in Love post on California’s homosexual marriage debate is disheartening, not just because it exposes the lack of morality in corporate policies, but also because it links to the Human Rights Campaign’s most recent Corporate Equality Index. The document shows corporations that rate 100 percent in the eyes of the homosexual activist group for such things as ”non-discrimination policies,” health-insurance benefits for transgender purposes, etc.

As Voddie points out in his post, it’s almost impossible to do business in daily life without supporting one of these companies.

And that’s just the ones with a perfect score!  This is bigger than you think.

What’s bizarre is how many companies could care less about what people with some sort of moral compass think.

… that “Highway 61 Revisited” is the best album ever recorded.

First, John McCain says Barack Obama’s proposed policies are socialist:

CONCORD, N.C. – Republican presidential candidate John McCain on Saturday accused Democratic rival Barack Obama of favoring a socialistic economic approach by supporting tax cuts and tax credits McCain says would merely shuffle wealth rather than creating it.

Then, he criticizes the Bush administration for not being, apparently, socialist enough:

He also was sharply critical of the Bush administration, saying it should be more aggressive in buying up the home mortgages of those trapped by high interest rates and falling housing values.

Make up your mind, John.

Will the news media jump on this the way they jumped on Dan Quayle and his spelling of potatoes?

Sen. Biden needs to issue talking points on his gaffes.

Was it one of the golden-tongued messiah’s famous gaffes, or did he really mean to say ”I think when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody.”

This is known as redistribution of wealth. This is socialism. Which is a failure. Which apparently Barack Obama hasn’t yet figured out.

The title of a C.J. Summers post at The Peoria Chronicle is “Official misconduct? Who cares?” and unfortunately it’s accurate. He’s writing about the new allegation that Aaron Schock back-dated notarized documents for his father seven years ago. Summers’ point is that voters have overlooked worse recently, and likely will do so again.

The Schock campaign against Colleen Callahan for the U.S. House is giving me heartburn. At first, I thought it’d be an easy decision to vote for Schock, although I had voted against him in the primary (and for Jim McConoughey). But every new dribble makes me question that decision. First, his see-sawing on why he can’t be at certain debates, then his hesitation to release tax and income information, and now this.

Not that I would vote for Callahan or Green Party candidate Sheldon Schafer. Callahan’s initial whining on her Web site early in the campaign about how her lawyer daughter had to try to pay off college loans (who would have thought law school would have been so expensive?!?) and her more recent support for a public-service draft (I believe Jonah Goldberg addressed such programs in “Liberal Fascism”) are in themselves reasons NOT to vote for her. Sheldon’s a nice guy, but far removed from where I’m at politically.

But I also don’t know whether I can in good conscience vote for Schock. I don’t know that he’s competent to be a congressman.

Do you ever get the feeling that voters have nothing to do with an election? That it’s just a game among the media, candidates and political action committees, and that we’re simply supposed to follow whatever they decide?

http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/2008/cyb20081013.asp#2

There appears to be a rumor on the street that WCIC-FM, Peoria’s contemporary Christian music station, and its sister stations throughout Illinois are for sale.

CIC station manager Dave Brooks tells me that’s not true.

“We are looking for a major donor that can help us grow the network. We are not for sale. As a matter of fact, we are in the process of buying a property.”

Got our sukkah (pronounced “soo-kah,” not like something Mr. T would say) put up yesterday amidst much sweating and fighting with Asian beetles. The sukkah is commanded in Leviticus 23, where God tells His people they are to dwell in booths (sukkot). It’s a temporary structure with a covering of foliage (or, in my sukkah’s case, bamboo strips).

Ours gets a little more decorative with the years. This year, we added fake pomegranates and two pictures, one of the Temple and one of the seven species that the land of Israel is known for.

The kids love it, of course. They managed to convince us to eat dinner in it last night even though Sukkot doesn’t start until sunset tonight (Monday).

I’ll get pix up in the next few days, hopefully. By the time I got home from hauling straw last night, it was already dark.